Pressure-Gated Ionic Contact in Multilayered Nanomeshes Enables Strain-Insensitive Pressure Sensing

Abstract

Soft robotic grippers require tactile interfaces that selectively detect contact pressure at the object–gripper interface without strain-induced artifacts from gripper deformation. Here, we report an ultrathin pressure-gated ionic-contact (PGIC) sensor for multidirectional tensile strain-insensitive pressure sensing. The sensor consists of stacked ion-conductive nanomesh layers and a porous insulating nanomesh interlayer. Normal pressure locally activates ionically conductive pathways between the ionomesh layers through the porous interlayer, whereas in-plane tensile deformation is mechanically accommodated without forming these pathways. This pressure-gated architecture produces an ionic-contact-mediated capacitive response under normal pressure and negligible capacitance variation under tensile strain. The 25-μm-thick fully nanofiber-based PGIC sensor enables conformal integration with a soft jamming gripper and pressure-selective tactile mapping at the object–gripper interface under simultaneous membrane deformation. The PGIC sensor-integrated gripper achieves stable object grasping and resolves object-dependent contact patterns determined by rigidity and geometry during membrane deformation.